“Wow, hissy—did they not teach you about figures of speech in school or something?” he blinked.

He then spun the purple pool noodle in his hands before giving a test ‘thwack’ against the rack, listening to the satisfying snapping noise it made.

A few moments later, a shadow flew overhead, circling a few times before coming in for a landing—it was Idun, his own Pidgeot.

“…and apparently she wants to meet this challenge in mid-air, on her terms, too,” he chuckled quietly as he gave the Pidgeot a pat on the head before he swung himself up on her back—no saddle and all.

Honestly, therein lie the major difference between them two; one rode with saddle, the other without.

“So basically how it goes,” he continued as he pointed to the skies, “…is that we charge at each other. Only instead of jousting on land, first to get three hits wins. And no, your partner Pokémon isn’t allowed to attack unless the circumstances are dire,” he explained.

“Got any other questions before we start?”

If Miss Elise was to look for him, he would not be at the Fortree Gym.

In fact there was nobody there today, seeing as the Gym proper itself was closed and only a skeleton crew of staffers were around for emergency services should the Sanctuary get unexpected patient visits or cases rushed their way…

The next logical place to look for him would be over at Fortree General, also known as the one place he never wanted to visit. On most days.

However, after what had happened down at Route 120? After those twenty years that had blipped by in an instant? Who the fuck wouldn’t be scared of suddenly wanting to catch up on…

Yeah.

And so it would be here that she would find him in a private room. Physically he looked alright, but deep inside?

Who the hell said he was alright, anyway?

Instead of the standard white, thin blanket, she would see a handmade quilt that had cute avianid Pokémon stitched into its face spread out on the bed—and the Birddad™ himself, looking absolutely bored as he was staring out the window.

Ugh.

Why did these check-ups take fucking forever?!

(Guillermo Marceliño was out somewhere, for now.)

---

who ordered even more emotional damage?! timelined after this as if he didn’t have enough already good grief

It was thanks to some of the other avians he knew that there was someone coming—and was looking for him!

Although, hilariously it was the Braviary of the hour himself, Kyouya, that had spotted her first riding an Absol—the avian in question did a 180 turn and flew backwards towards the Gym, giving the man of the hour himself enough time to prepare and get ready that there was a visitor coming!

“Wait, you—what? Today, as in right now?!” he exclaimed as the blue-plumed Braviary came in screeching, shrieking his way.

“Whoa, whoa, hold up! Calm down!” he continued as the blue-plumed avian continued to lose his proverbial shit. “Get your shit together!”

And so it was in a state of disarray that the guest of the hour herself would see him, trying to calm down not just the Braviary but also a legitimate swarm of Rufflet—as well as some odd-looking Braviary as well (the gray-plumed ones).

It was too hot for him to normally function, however he was here for another reason—

Accompanying him was a Corvisquire, as well as a pink-plumed Murkrow. The two avians were also drenched in sweat, because how could a place as hot as this plausibly exist—

Oh, that’s right. They were near Mount Chimney.

“Come on, you two, quiet down, we’re taking a breather, right?” he addressed the two avianids, who squawked out of protest, however continued to fly low around him. The Murkrow, in fact, decided to land on his shoulder and—

“Miss Freya? Is that you?”

As the two come in for their unceremonious crash-landing back on the ground, he thought he heard a triumphant roar, but wasn’t sure if it was the Garchomp or his Gyarados—

Once the smoke and dust cleared, his Gyarados had already transformed back into her normal form; for a few moments he could definitely taste blood in the back of his mouth but paid it no mind.

There was one singular roar as she stuck her head up from the rubble—only for her to fall forward; but she wasn’t passed out. Not by a long shot, though!

“Wow… just. I’m… I’m speechless.”

---

Gyarados is out on the field!

Gyarados stands up for a few moments; however crashes down on the ground right afterward!

“Nope! My theme is anything and everything that has wings. Not just strictly limited to Flying-types, but anything that has a pair of wings and can use those to fly in the sky—that’s fair game for me.”

Among the crowd of ‘show-offs’ was a Dragonite and a Flygon—however, those were not going to be the two the other would be facing down today.

One of the two Pokémon Sergei had sent out literally made him stop and do a backtrack—while he thought he saw something that looked like living sushi (wait, was that for real?!) the other one made him literally do the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ thing.

“Is that… no, wait—it looks like a Salamence, but…” he trailed off, evident confusion on his features.

“Where did you find that Pokémon?”

“Y-yeah, I do,” he replied, mentally screaming at himself from saying the next words, ‘I saw you on the dating app and you are definitely a smash’ while he shook the other man’s hand as he stood up from behind the receptionist’s counter.

It did not help at all when the other literally emphasized the words ‘go hard’ which made his ears burn even more red than they normally did—out of sheer embarrassment!

Oh, djinni. This was going to be a story for the ages once he got to telling Guillermo Marceliño he’d actually, physically met one of the guys he’d swiped right on!

“Two-on-two doubles, right?” he confirmed as he led the way towards the outdoor arena—opening the door and allowing him to step outside first.

And then, as always, nasty little showoffs that they were—a large flock of shadows took off from the roof top of the front building, revealing all variety of avianid Pokémon. There were, however, a few draconid shadows circling above as well—a Hydreigon and a Salamence among them.

From somewhere, the loud squawking noise of a horde of Pelipper made their presence known.

“Sorry. They just know when to show the hell off when I bring a challenger outside to the open-air arena,” he apologized; embarrassed for his armada of Pokémon.

“I… I did. I’m… here, but.”

He was so desperate to hold the other close he had no objections when Memo was literally right there, flesh and blood and bone and—

“Shit felt. Felt so much more lonely. W-without you, at… at my side.”

No, he was not going to propose. At least, not yet anyway because there was a time and place for all that.

All he craved right now was companionship, and…

Well, basically him. Not in the sexual way, just in the ‘please don’t leave me’ kind of comforting way.

“I’m. I’m sorry I left.”

---

timelined right after the end of the rusted sword raid; dorime

The grind never ended.

Today was another day out at the Fortree Gym, and Alexei himself was out at the front desk—the two receptionists were out on errand runs helping other people living in Fortree.

And, hilariously, there was a faint coloration of blush on his face the moment he looked up and realized… uh-oh!

Wasn’t he like, one of the guys he swiped right on in that dating app him and Guillermo Marceliño downloaded for fun and compared hot guys they found on there…

“O-oh, hi,” he stammered the moment the redhead made his appearance.

“There we go!” he shouted as the Garchomp finally took off into the sky—and the Gyarados let out an excited roar as well.

Never mind if they were flying as high as possible into the sky—the only way she was holding on was through an Ice Fang as the two almost disappeared into the clouds.

“Whoa…” Alexei commented as he squinted into the clouds, wondering when the two would come crashing down…

…it was just a matter of time.

“See? I don’t know why you weren’t letting him fly, but look at them go!” he remarked before the two eventually came crashing down, the Gyarados still hanging on stubbornly on the Garchomp’s hide—never mind if it was hurting her in the process.

He then braced himself for impact on the ground…

---

Gyarados is out on the field!

Gyarados hangs on tight to the Garchomp with Ice Fang!

Now that the field was a one-on-one, it was only a matter of time before someone between the two of them budged, however he was sure his Yanma wasn’t going to give up the ghost despite flying lopsided in mid-air.

He knew he was pushing his luck, however who was he to deny his Pokémon the chance of a lifetime to prove themselves? By then the crazy flock of Pelipper had dispersed back to the trees they called ‘home’ somewhere on the Sanctuary grounds, and it was just them now—him, the challenger Lam, and their two remaining Pokémon on the arena.

The shiny Shinx was now trying to get airborne with the incoming Wild Charge, however with an attack as powerful as that charging head-on into it was enough to be considered as ‘game over’, what other choice was there—

He grit his teeth as he felt the grating Buzzing noise coming from the Bug/Flying-type Pokémon echo in the space all around them.

Somehow, he knew that somewhere, one of them had to give as the Yanma stared down the incoming Shinx with a determined glare as it rocketed closer toward him.

---

Yanma is out on the field!

we’re in the endgame now

Yanma released another Bug Buzz attack, all the while staring down the incoming Shinx and the Wild Charge attack!

“I still remember our battle, you know,” he chuckled once the brown-haired… wait, it wasn’t fair of him to call Hideo a kid anymore, considering that it had been some time since the latter had come to challenge his gym with their Dragonite and Oricorio before.

(And back then he was somewhat unprepared considering that he hadn’t properly trained up his Togekiss and Crobat for that match.)

A lot of time had passed since then, though, and now here he was taking in the quiet little sight of the rows and rows of books—while he had an entire outdoor sanctuary attached to his Gym, Hideo’s was more on a library set-up.

(Of course, it was partly due to the typing the other had chosen.)

“Out of the three choices? Well, who wouldn’t want a little escapism from reality?” he replied in response to the other’s question—now that they were on equal footing, he didn’t want to underestimate the other.

“Plus, if I’m being honest, looking at it from the top of things I can see that meeting fae creatures, even if it’s just in a simulation-like experience, would be nice.”